News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-05-19
PRETTY SHOP GIRLS.
An Interesting Sight on Lower
broadway When They are Out in
Force.
from New York letter.


1t is pleasure to walk up Broadway
from Chambers to Blocker street any
bright afternoon from $50 to o'clock.
Nearly every one of the big buildings
within those limits has factories on
every floor, where hundreds and thou
sands of girls are employed in making
clothing, underwear, neckties, cloaks,
fancy boxes and other articles of luxury
and necessity. Pretty much all of them
are between the ages of IA and %. By
the time they are 25 they are either mar
ried or swept away,no one knows where.
Most of these factories close at $50 and
the girls hurry on their wraps and start
for home, and great numbers of them
live in Brooklyn and New Jersey, where
board and lodging is much cheaper than
in New York, and so they walk down
Broadway to the ferries. They are as
handsome a set of girls as can be found
anywhere Like nearly all American
women, they have the knack of dressing
becomingly, and their trim and shapely
figures are shown off to good advantage.
They do not look discomfort, if their
bright and cheerful faces are any critic
rion, and they chatter merTily as they
pass along two OF three at time. They
have the independent bearing of girls
who know they earn their own living
and are not dependent on any man for
support. Some of the prettiest are &C
companied by young men-perhaps some
of the clerks who have taken a fancy to
them. Nearly all of them have been
pupils in the public schools. They read
the newspapers and can talk cleverly.
A vast amount of rot is printed about
them, but in point of fact they are as
Jolly and contented lot of young women
as can be found elsewhere in the world.
There is great cutlery on the part of
theatrical, shOrt-haired and atmospheric
philanthropists, at times, because fac
tory and shop girls do not give up their
and seek homes as servants
in uptown families. The girl knows
what she is about. The bedraggled
maid of all work, nagged by silly mis-
tress, abused by horde of snappy chill
dren, and saddled with thousand cares,
has one night out a week, when she has
an opportunity to be courted by the
coachman or hostler. The working girl
is her own mistress absolutely from the
time she leaves the factory at o'clock
in the evening until she returns at
the following morning. Her indepen-
dence is absolute, and during her hours
freedom she is as much lady as the
wife of the President. She visits her
friends and receives the calls of men
who are by no means to be despised in
the matrimonial market A great and
welcome change has come over public
opinion respecting women who have the
courage, faith and energy to go out in
the world and make themselves the ar
biters of their own futures instead of
moping at home, burden to their
friends and trial to their relatives
That workingwomen command in many
instances the highest respect cannot be
lenied by any man who has an intimate
of New York life. There are
aides of high culture, finished accom-
Dlishments and many graces of mind and
person in the boarding houses of New
York who are the popular leaders of lit
lie social circles despite the fact that
hey are employed during the day.
There are grades of labor, and women
nave learned to look the world in the |
ace and fight for the best fields,